Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People

S2N was asked to document the major exhibition “Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People” for The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in such a way that it could be repurposed across several media formats to extend the experience to a wider audience. Working closely with the curators and staff, we created a virtual exhibit that included 360° QuickTime Virtual Reality views of each exhibit room and exhibit objects, video of special events connected with the show, curator guided video tours, customized maps, and multimedia slideshows.

This layered multimedia approach, organized along the exhibit themes, was presented in a dual platform CD-ROM with core software developed in Flash. The S2N team then repurposed the digital components to develop a dynamic and cost efficient website exhibit. This development process created valuable portable assets that enable the Museum to implement a strategy of “create once, publish everywhere”.

The site was a Best of the Web nominee at Museums and the Web 2003, and won First Prize in the Art and Culture category at the 2003 South by Southwest Interactive Festival.